Born near the West Bank city of Ramallah, Mr. Meshal became the leader of Hamas’s political office in 1996, directing the group from exile. Two years later, Israeli agents injected him with a slow-acting poison in Jordan, sending him into a coma before he was saved by an antidote provided by Israel as part of a diplomatic deal with Jordan.

Two Hamas officials told the BBC discussions to choose a successor for the group's leader Yahya Sinwar, whose killing was confirmed on Thursday, will begin very soon. The officials said that Khalil al-Hayya,

Israel on Thursday confirmed it killed Yahya Sinwar, the head of Hamas’s political bureau, during an operation in the Gaza Strip. Sinwar was promoted to the role after his predecessor, Ismail Haniyeh,